(Note: the number of seeds varies from myth to myth.).Hades agrees, but, before Persephone goes, he secretly slips some pomegranate seeds into her mouth.Seeing this, Zeus sends Hermes, the messenger god, down to the underworld to order Hades to let Persephone go.A terrible famine assaults the earth, and people are starving everywhere.Demeter vows that she won't set foot on Mount Olympus and that she won't let anything grow on earth until she sets eyes on her daughter again.She is even sadder than she was before, and she's furious with Zeus.The sun god tries to cheer Demeter up by pointing out that Hades is a good husband for her daughter after all he's a pretty important and powerful god.Helios ends up telling Demeter the whole deal – Zeus gave Persephone to Hades and Hades hauled her down to the underworld.
Demeter decides to go ask Helios, the sun god, since he's up in the sky all day and sees pretty much everything. Eventually, Hecate shows up and tells Demeter that she heard the scream too, but that she doesn't know what happened either. The goddess is so upset that she doesn't eat or bathe while she's searching. Demeter wanders all over the earth with torches in her hands looking for Persephone. She asks all around, but nobody can tell her what happened. Demeter is terrified when she hears her daughter's scream. Her mother, Demeter, also hears her screams, but she's too far away to do anything about it. Hecate, goddess of witchcraft, and Helios, god of the sun, hear Persephone's cries. He grabs Persephone and starts dragging her down to the underworld. One day, Persephone is picking flowers with some nymph friends of hers when, all of a sudden, Hades bursts out of the ground, driving a chariot of black horses. (In some versions of this story, Cupid hits Hades with a love arrow and makes Hades fall for Persephone.). The king of the gods doesn't bother to tell Persephone or her mother, Demeter (or Ceres), goddess of agriculture, of his decision. Zeus decides it's a good idea to give his daughter, Persephone (or Proserpina), goddess of spring, as a bride to his brother Hades (or Pluto), god of the underworld. The ancient Greeks used this myth to explain something that affects how plants grow. From then on, whenever Persephone was with Demeter on Earth, Demeter would be so happy and crops, fruit and plants would grow and flourish beautifully – but when she went back to the Underworld, to live with Hades for six months, the plants would stop growing entirely. Zeus and Hades agreed that Persephone would have to spend six months in the Underworld, but that she could return to Earth for the other six months of the year. Persephone had eaten six pomegranate seeds. Hades said, ‘Persephone can only leave if she hasn’t eaten any of the food that I’ve given her.’īut she already had. Zeus visited Hades to ask him to let Persephone leave. Meanwhile, Hades wanted to make it more difficult for Persephone to leave the Underworld, and gave her some delicious Underworld food – a fruit called a pomegranate. Zeus could see how Demeter’s sadness was affecting Earth and so he agreed to help her. She went to Zeus, the king of the gods, to ask him to help get her daughter back from Hades. Crops, fruit and nature all stopped growing. She was so sad, it affected the harvest across Greece. How do you think Persephone felt?ĭemeter could no longer see her daughter and missed her hugely. He wanted the lovely Persephone to be his wife. Hades – the God of the Underworld – arrived through the hole and captured Persephone. One day she was walking in a beautiful meadow and gathering flowers to take home when a huge hole opened up in the ground. Demeter had a kind and beautiful daughter, called Persephone, who she loved very much. She was a very important goddess to Ancient Greek people, who farmed a lot of their food. Or maybe you could tell someone a myth that you've made up!ĭemeter was the Ancient Greek goddess of the harvest. Can you try and tell someone else the story of Demeter and Persephone now you have heard it?. Who do you think the hero of the story is?Īncient Greek people loved to tell the stories of their gods from memory. 
Watch the video below of story of Demeter and Persephone or read along.
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